User blog:Ezekielfan22/Diana Underhill (Royal Pains)
Diana Underhill (Teri Polo) is a recurring villainess from "Stranger Danger" and "Palpating the Orbital Rim", the first two episodes of the eighth and final season of Royal Pains (airdates May 18 and 25, 2016). She was a former CEO and current candidate for the New York senate. Introduction Diana was introduced in "Stranger Danger" after calling concierge doctor Hank Lawson, experiencing pain in her left shoulder that she believed could be attributed to the constant work she was juggling during the election season. After examing her and finding nothing of alarm, Hank advised Diana to get a full workup at Hamptons Heritage, assuring Diana--who was fearful that her health issues could jeopardize her candidacy--that the hospital would respect her privacy. Diana went through with Hank's recommendation, striking both him and his brother Evan (the new administrator of Hamptons Heritage) as a reasonable woman. Despite this, however, Evan's wife Paige warned Evan not to be fooled by Diana's charms, referring to her by the nickname "Diana Underhanded" and expressing anger at her for calling her father William Colins (who was running against Diana for Senate) as "anti-gun", despite him being a well-known General and hunter. Hank later had a follow-up with Diana after she recorded a video for her website, with the visit having Hank learn that Diana had withheld the fact that she was a smoker, which she justified by revealing how she'd previously made a public spectacle out of quitting and didn't want to risk having her habit leaked. Hank's next visit with Diana would have her revealing that her shoulder pain was back and now also in her stomach, with Hank revealing that she could have endometriosis and needed a biopsy. Diana initially tried to get out of seeking treatment due to having 50 high-level donors she needed to call, only for Hank to stop her and insist that she needed the biopsy to confirm the endometriosis and receive corrective surgery. But despite seemingly acqueiscing, Diana later checked herself out of the hospital before having the biopsy, leading her to collapse in her house after developing a hemothorax in her lungs, with Hank arriving and saving her life before having her sent back to Hamptons Heritage. Hank later informed Diana she would need to consider having a hysterectomy to prevent any recurring complications, with Diana opting to get the operation done as soon as possible for the sake of her senate campaign. Heel Turn The end of the episode had Evan learning a shocking revelation from the head of IT at the hospital, Lewis Nardhoffer: there was a large-scale hack within Hamptons Heritage's medical data, compromising the security of all their patients' information. In the following episode, "Palpitating the Orbital Rim," Diana's information was quickly shown to have been leaked, with a hospitalized Diana seeing numerous news programs detailing her endometriosis diagnosis. Shortly afterwards, Evan visited Diana to apologize for the leak and assure her that they were working to undo the damages, only for Diana to show Evan the various news outlets reporting on her illness and state that the damage was already done. Diana went on to state that the incident had given her campaign issues she could now speak more personally about, while also revealing her intent to have Hamptons Heritage held accountable for the leak. Evan attempted to persuade Diana not to name the hospital or himself directly in her planned statements, only for Diana to argue that while she could do so, the public preferred stories with a clear cut hero and villain, callously stating that Evan was the villain of the story. However, Evan later received news from Lewis that the hacking had left all of their patients' information untouched, leading to a revelation regarding Diana's information leak: Diana ''had leaked her own medical file, doing so after finding out about the hack, while also using the hack to cover up her deeds. Evan confronted Diana regarding her actions as she was preparing to leave the hospital, with Evan arguing that Diana leaked her information as a political strategy, as the leak gave her new campaign issues to speak personally about and allowed her to use her illness to garner sympathy. Cornered, Diana asked Evan what he wanted, with Evan turning Diana's words on her by arguing that the public liked stories with ''two heroes. With that in mind, Diana was later shown appearing on television praising Hamptons Heritage for their services as a private hospital, likely doing so in exchange for having her villainous actions kept out of the public's knowledge. Trivia *Teri Polo also appeared on Monk and Criminal Minds as villainess Stephanie Briggs and the evil Margaret Hallman, respectively, and later appeared in 2018's Deadly Delusion as evil therapist Dr. Leary, as well as in 2019's Deadly Switch as the psychotic Olivia Jansen. Quotes *"On the bright side, Mr. Lawson, now I have a few more campaign issues to which I intend to speak personally like privacy, cyber security....how our health care system is being run by marginally competent bureaucrats. (Evan: "That doesn't include me, right?") I need to address this, Mr. Lawson, and you and your hospital need to be held accountable. (Evan: "Right, but....can you address it in....general terms, like....without the human sacrifice?") I could. But you know, America loves a good story. Especially one with a hero and a villain. And in this one, Mr. Lawson, I'm afraid you are the villain." (Diana's callous and arrogant plan regarding the leak of her medical information; serving as the foreshadowing to her opportunistic heel persona) Gallery Diana Underhill2.png Diana Underhill Smirk.jpg Category:Blog posts Category:2010s Category:Blonde Category:Business Villainess Category:Callous Category:Deceiver Category:Greedy Category:Live Action Villainess Category:Nasty, but Small-Time Category:Opportunistic Corruption Category:Politics Category:Villainous Reveal Category:Fate: Karma Houdini